Transcript:
This is Maureen Farrell and Heather ONeal. And this is the Milk Minute an inclusive evidence-based podcast hosted by midwives and lactation professionals. That’s us. Here to talk to you about all things, lactation and boobs, body positivity, mental health, all the Milky topics. Join us for another episode.
Welcome to a brand spanking new year at the Milk Minute Podcast. If you’re anything like Maureen and I, you are really pumped to get rid of 2020, but here’s the thing before we move on, there’s some stuff we got to talk about. A lot happened in 2020 as it relates to breastfeeding. Believe it or not.
There’s actually a lot of research that came out of 2020 with breastfeeding, and also there’s a lot of progress with statistics and where we stand now. And of course, we want to talk about where we want to go with breastfeeding. So before we do that, we’re going to take a listener question. Then we’re going to get into the conversation and then we’re going to give an award at the end.
So stick around because you never know, it might be you.
This is a question from Sherry. She says, I’m not sure what to do. I’m having day surgery Monday, and I won’t be able to feed babe for at least five hours. I’ve been completely unsuccessful with my electric pump and have only collected three ounces over the last few days with the haka. I feel like my supply has completely tanked and the stress is causing a vicious circle.
Yeah, that is definitely a tricky one. First, I want to say episode 32 of our podcast goes over how to get the most out of your pumping experience. So that’s a good place to start if you’re just pumping really isn’t working for you because probably it’s not, you it’s usually the pump. Right. But second of all, you know, that’s a really small amount of time for baby not to feed five or six hours.
Assuming this baby is not really little. You know, they are a couple of months, old babies can survive longer than that without feeding. I would just have a really candid conversation with their caregiver and say, Hey, you know what? I only have three ounces of milk. This baby might cry the entire time I’m gone. They might seem like they’re hungry, but please like just feed them this one bottle. And then I will feed as soon as I can.
And I would have maybe a time limit, right? If I’m unable to feed for X amount of hours, then you can give something else. If your baby doesn’t take a bottle at all, or you have nothing stored up at all, you’re going to bring your baby with you to the hospital because they say your surgery is scheduled at 12. But you might not actually go until two o’clock.
So make sure that whoever is with you can, and I know it’s COVID right now, so it’s hard to say, but ideally you’d be able to bring your baby with you, to the hospital, nurse them right before you go back. And so be really honest with the nurse that you have taken care of you and say, Hey, I’m breastfeeding. I need to breastfeed right before we go back. And to make it stretch that time. And then as soon as possible, whenever you get back from surgery.
And then also it’s important to get the actual list of what medications they use, not the theoretical list of medications they use, because if you’re going in for just a regular appendectomy and they’re like, oh, Well, typically we use this, this and this.
Okay. But what did use? Did you get a bug up your butt and you decided to use something different today. So ask your nurse to go into the operative chart or the procedure note and see what anesthesia was actually used that way when you call me or Maureen or another lactation consultant, and we ask you what you were given, you can tell us.
Yeah. And again, like use those nurses to your advantage, be like, Hey, I’m breastfeeding. You know, here’s my pump. Can you help me pump as soon as I am out of surgery or, you know, whatever the situation may be, because they are going to be there to help you. And do not dump it. Even if you are given a medication that is absolutely contraindicated in breastfeeding, you can use it for a milk bath or whatever. So just don’t let anybody dump your milk out until at least you’ve checked with an IBCLC. Yeah, that’s it. I hope that helps.
Let’s take a minute to thank our sponsor AeroFlow. Oh, tell me more about that. You know, do you ever wake up in the morning? And you’re like, I would love to call my insurance company today. Literally never once have I thought that. Okay. So people at AeroFlow knew this. All right. Good. And they decided that it would be in everybody’s best interest if they developed a business where they contacted your insurance company to order your breast pump for you. This sounds good.
So you literally never have to call your insurance company to work out getting a breast pump, which is fantastic because no one ever wants to do that crap when they’re postpartum. And the other cool part is… they will text you and let you know when it’s time for you to replace your pumping parts and when your insurance will pay for new ones.
So maybe, you know, your pump parts are fine for now, but if insurance is going to cover a new set, great. I mean, I don’t know about you, but I’m not really combing through my insurance benefits information postpartum to see when I qualify for replacement parts. No. Right. So we’re going to go ahead and put a link in the show notes for AeroFlow.
And when you click that link, it’s super easy. You just put in all of your insurance information and then somebody from AeroFlow contacts you directly, and you have like a real person that you talk with and then they do all the dirty work for you. It’s fantastic. I couldn’t recommend it enough. Please, just do yourself a favor and get your pump through AeroFlow. It’s going to save you so much time in trouble. Right, and they have all the top brand name pumps, replacement parts and accessories. You know, they’ve got cooling gel pads. They’ve got those pumping bras, all the stuff you need, one place. Yep. One place.
So, um, I guess the only thing left to say about that is you’re welcome. You’re welcome.
Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to our pastoral session. Yeah, we had a rooster crowing out the window a few minutes ago. You might get to hear it. Actually that little chicken… was it a chicken or a rooster? Well, was it crowing? No, it was running, but it was kind of limping, but it was running so fast. The one in the front yard is a rooster who refuses to live in the backyard and most of the ones in the backyard are hens.
Okay. Griffin was so funny showing me the chickens this morning. And he was really concerned for my safety with stripey chicken. Oh yeah. She’s a bitch. Stripey chicken. He was like, you better be careful because stripey chicken will get you. And I was like, well, I’m not going in there. Oh. And then limpy chicken does live in the backyard.
Oh, I don’t know what happened to limpy chicken, but she limps now, but I mean, she’s fine. She was going like top speed. What is top speed for a chicken? I don’t know, but that chicken likes to assist her running by like flapping her wings. Oh, that’s funny. Yeah. Stripey chicken. Griffin was like, we should just eat that chicken.
He usually he’s like, mom, I shouldn’t eat any of the animals. And he gets so upset and he’s like, we can eat stripey chicken, mom. Stripey Chicken’s a bitch chicken. She seriously follows you around and pecks you till you feed her. She’s an asshole. I can relate. I mean, I get it, but also anyway, so yeah, we’re here at my farm.
It’s fun. This is a great place to end 2020, which has been a dumpster fire. And I saw an ornament for the tree the other day, that was a dumpster with 2020 on it with flames coming out. And I was like, yes, this is exactly what I need for my tree! So today I wanted to thank a patron quick. We have another new patron. Her name is Llena and she’s from West Virginia. She’s also a midwife. So, thank you very much Llena and thank you to all of our other patrons. And if you want to become a patron and get access to behind the scenes, video, special portions of episodes, that we don’t release to the public cause they’re kind of embarrassing for us. Um, merch you get, you get merch when you sign up just cute little posts from us.
Some patrons get access to live Q and A’s with us. Anyway. It’s great. Did you say merchandise? I said merch. But you can sign up on patreon.com/milkminutepodcast. Whoop. So today, today we are going to talk about where we’re at with breastfeeding. Yeah, we’re doing a look back at 2020. Yeah.
We’re going to see… Frightening. Yeah. We’re going to see really quick, in a non-really quick way. What came out of 2020 as far as breastfeeding goes, what research has been done is being done or needs to be done as a result of certain things, quote unquote, that happened in 2020. Well, you know what though, first, can we start with a personal look back for us?
Oh, please. Yes. Let’s talk about that. That’s always fun, guys. How, how far have you come this year? Where’d you start in December of 2019. Where were you? And where are you now? Honestly, I feel like 2020 has been such a long year. Like I can’t even remember 2019. It was 30 years ago. Did that happen? I don’t know.
Oh God. Well, I mean, at that point I was, I guess like maybe just really beginning to feel like I actually knew my shit attending births. And I didn’t like personally second guess. Like I was actually probably still second guessing every single choice I made. And I do feel like since that time I’ve really come to a point where I’m like, you know what?
Like I can make decisions most of the time. In a clinical setting. Yeah. That’s a big moment when you finally stop shitting your pants on your way to a birth, because you’re like, oh yeah, I know actually how to do all of this stuff. Or like when my preceptor calls and she’s like, you’re getting there first. It’s a quick one. Get your gloves on. And I’m like, I’m going to shit my pants in this car. I don’t feel that way anymore. You know, when the baby flies out, there’s nothing wrong. It’s when they get the stuck that you have problems. Yeah, but I, I feel like I usually, at this point, like if I’m thinking like, wow, this might be a transfer, maybe we should go to the hospital.
It’s not it doesn’t, I don’t have to like question that a thousand times anymore. I think I’m getting it. So that’s really cool. That’s huge clinical decision-making and feeling confident in that is a huge step. Yeah. I mean, that’s a process I’ll go through forever, but like, I, yeah, I feel like I might actually feel comfortable like practicing without another trained midwife at a birth in the next year two, which is going to be my next step. That’s awesome. I’m also pregnant. That’s the thing I did this year. Anything else? I think that’s maybe it, I just like… Those are big. I’m having a baby. You started this podcast with me.
Yeah! We did! When did we even start this? July. Gosh, it feels like it’s been forever. In a good way though. It does. It does. It’s weird. Cause we batch record every few months and I feel like I’m measuring my life by our batch recordings. I used to measure my life by dental visits, which happened every six months and I’d be like, wow, look how much my life has changed since the last time I got my teeth cleaned, but now this is a way more fun way to measure my life.
What’s happened with you this year, Heather? A lot. Oh God, well in December of 2019, I was in the throws of a home birth business that I had built from the ground up. And it’s called Wise Women Health Care, and I was damning the man all over the place and fighting against the system of red tape surrounding women and your choices and pregnancy and giving birth.
I was fired up from morning until night. Every single day. Finding every loophole. I think I can dub myself the loophole queen of 2019. That’s what I’m awarding myself. So if anybody has anything medical that they’re trying to get around, just holler at the loophole queen, because I’m sure I can figure out a way around it for you because I did it.
But yeah, so we were doing it. I had an exam table in my living room. I had a LabCorp lockbox on my garage door. Always fun. It was cool. I was ready to rumble. I have since sold that business to another midwife who’s doing very well with it, and she’s very busy and it’s a sustainable home birth practice in Morgantown, West Virginia, which is great.
So cool. So yay! And as soon as I sold that, I started this idea. I was, let’s see, in December of 2019, I was finishing breastfeeding my one-year-old. Yeah, I’d been a lactation consultant for a whole year. Oh, that’s great. Like an official one anyways, like a board certified one and golly.
House project after house project, everything broke in my house and had to be replaced. Right. You have like, I think every time I go to your house now, it’s like, oh, your whole kitchen is new. Look at your new couch. Let me tell you about the stuff that broke in 2020, the new roof on the back porch, we had to do refrigerator, a garbage disposal… there’s something else. I’m sure. I don’t know. But yeah, so lots of changes and mostly just hanging in there. And now I have my newest business, which is Breastfeeding for Busy Moms, and you’re still rocking your, your art business and your stuff is so cool. So if you’re like a birth art junkie, go check out Maureen’s stuff. Yeah, what’s your website, again? It’s called the wandering womb on Etsy, but instead of a B at the end of womb, it’s a six.
So yeah, here we are. We’re sitting at Maureen’s farm, looking at the beautiful animals out the window. On my little Amish-made chest. I’m hoping her orange cat comes back and sits in my lap again, because that was really nice. He abandoned us. He did.
The other stupid cat is laying like among your supplies on my bed. Just luxuriously, like enjoying the really comfy bedspread I got from Ikea. Nice. It’s quite nice. All right. So now to get into the stuff about breastfeeding in 2020, there were some changes. Some things happened. First, you want to give us a, a baseline of where like statistically we are.
Yeah. So, so the CDC, at least for the US puts out a breastfeeding report card every year. But because we kind of have to wait like a year or two to analyze statistics about how long babies breastfeed and whatever. These are actually from more like 2018 babies, but that’s okay. Because we want to know were babies breastfed for six months a year, blah, blah, blah.
So I have kind of two things here. I have the CDC report card, which is biannual by the way. So you can always look that up. And then I have the healthy people project goals. So the healthy people project puts out these breastfeeding goals. Um, so, you know, they’ve got your baseline at whatever year, and then they had a target specifically for 2020.
So I’m going to kind of compare. Where we’re at with that target, which some of them, I was surprised like how, how good they were. Usually we don’t meet those. Yeah. So we’re gonna see, let’s start here. The percentage of infants who were ever breastfed one day, one year, whatever, all the same category. Right now, we are at 84.1% in the United States. That’s higher than I thought. I know! And our 2020 goal was 81.9%. So we are doing better than that. Actually crushed a goal. That’s awesome. Ce-la-brate good times! Come on! Okay. Yeah, that’s a great one. It makes me feel good.
Okay. So our next one is the percentage of infants who were breastfed at six months. So again, this includes infants who were fed formula as well, but they were still receiving breast milk at six months. And so our number is 58.3%, which is pretty good. And the 2020 goal was 60.6%. So we’re really close to that. Close. Keep pushing, people! Right. We are getting there.
Then we have the percentage of infants who are breastfed at a year. So again, not exclusively breastfed, but still getting breast milk. The United States is at 35.3%, but our goal was 34.1. So again, we crushed a goal. I’d still like to see that number higher. Yeah. Why is the goal so low? Well, because really all of the breastfeeding campaigns focused on the first six months. Why? Because it’s kind of like triage, you know what I mean? Like, especially in the U S our breastfeeding statistics have been so fucking crappy that they’re like, let’s start with ever getting breast milk.
Then we’re going to go to exclusively breastfed for three months, exclusively breastfed for six months. And that’s kind of where most of the campaigns stop because they’re like, okay, most of our health information tells us that that is the most important goal for an infant. So… Yeah.
And also our maternity leave sucks. So I’m sure the workplace federal office walked across the hall to the breastfeeding office and was like, oh, I’m going to need you to lower that for after six months, because we can’t keep up with the demand. And like the goals that the healthy people project puts out, they try to be realistic. You know, obviously they want a hundred percent of infants to receive breast milk.
A hundred percent have been being exclusively breastfed for six months. But, you know, we know as healthcare providers. If somebody comes in to us with a big problem, we’re not going to say, well, just stop that shit tomorrow. Okay. No, that doesn’t happen. We go with baby steps. We’re like, what can you do today, realistically, to help with that?
And that’s kind of what the 2020 people goals are. They’re like, okay, USA. You’re in the dumpster right here. So we’re just going to make baby steps out of that dumpster. Okay. Yeah. So anyway, the numbers don’t particularly get better from here, but we’ll talk about it. Okay.
So then we have the percentage of infants who were exclusively breastfed for three months, only breast milk. Our number is 46.9%. Our goal was actually 46.2%. So that’s pretty spot on. Again, I would still love to see this higher. I feel like it breaks my heart to think that so many parents were in a situation where they were unsupported enough that they had to stop breastfeeding before three months. Um, so, you know, and I think that’s, that’s the big thing that we’re missing with that number.
Well, I think the reason we crushed that number. You know, we beat that goal is because of the boost for hospital lactation consultants. Yeah. And that’s a big part of this project too. So shout out to all the hospital lactation consultants that are triaging people in the immediate postpartum period and getting them set up for success in order to exclusively breastfeed up to three months. You’re like the heroes there, for sure.
Yeah. I think it’s even on the CDC website, like their goal is that every single nurse that works L and D has lactation training. Yeah. You know, and, and I’ve seen a lot of hospitals get there. Like I’ve been to a number of CLC trainings where it, 90% of the participants are L and D nurses and they’re paid to be there.
It’s gonna take awhile. I was one of those people that trained the nurses at a hospital and some of the nurses are just not, they don’t believe in it at all. You’re right. Some nurses are just old school and they’re just also like, they’re just tired and maybe they don’t fucking love their job. And because in addition to teaching about breastfeeding, they’re also not getting paid any more, but they’re getting a lot more responsibility, especially in the time of COVID. So when you ask them to do yet another training, they’re like, are you kidding me? So like the patient loads and the money and the time, it just doesn’t all add up. So I completely understand the pushback, but I think it’s just going to take a while for our system to be able to beef up in a way is realistic. And then that number can go up. Totally. Okay. More goals, huh.
So our next statistic is the number of infants who were exclusively breastfed for six months and we actually crushed it on this one. I mean, we met our goal anyway, so we’re at 25.6%. Our goal was 25.5%. And this has been the goal that so many organizations have really pushed for. And I know you’re like 25%. Are you fucking kidding me? Yeah. That is a big improvement for us. In 2006, we were at 14% guys. Oh, wow. We’ve come a long way. We’ve come a long way. That particular number has grown a lot. I think that’s our biggest growth. So wait to see the longevity studies about how our health as adults has improved since our breastfeeding rates have improved. Because I mean, it just really, it’s not a secret that breastfeeding sets you up for better immune health overall. Cause right now the amount of auto-immune disease and all kinds of stuff out there. Weird cancers in younger people. Um, so I’m just very curious to see how that shakes out.
Yeah. We also have been working on, like we said, training employees, so. The percentage of employers that have work site lactation support programs… so, maybe that’s just high of having an IBCLC. I’m not sure. Right? It’s a little vague, but we’re at 51%. Our goal was 38% and in 2009, we were at 25%. So that’s a lot of growth.
That’s awesome. Yeah, that makes me feel good. Yeah. I like being a part of a winning team. You know? Like this is good. We’re actually doing this. People aren’t like breastfeeding on the sly anymore. Like hiding it from friends and family members in your workplace. People are like, no, I’m breastfeeding… this is what’s happening, and it’s normal. So all of you that have gone out there and really normalized breastfeeding, this is where you’ve made a difference. Right here. So, good job.
Okay. Well, I hate to end on a bad note. My God. But we’re gonna. I mean, it’s not the end of the episode, but the next one is the percentage of newborns, breastfed newborns who receive formula supplementation within the first two days.
If you guys listened to this podcast at all… how many times have we said babies, a well newborn does not need supplementation in the first few days of life. Right? Okay. So we are at 19.2% and we’re looking for this number to come down. We want to see the lowest possible number here. Our goal was 14%, so we didn’t make it.
We were at 24% in 2006. So it hasn’t changed that much, but we’re getting there, you know, like we’re, we’re getting there. I would like to see that number change a lot. I would like that number to be at like 5%. I think that’s a good goal. And so basically how we compare to the goals is we’re on the right track and we’re on the right track because of people like you.
And because of hospital lactation consultants and employers who are really understanding the importance and the benefits to them as an employer to supporting breastfeeding. Yes. Less sick days used, less postpartum depression, better productivity, actually. So you end up making more money as a business if you support people in breastfeeding, as employees.
So I think people are starting to get the memo and I think it’s only up from here. Oh man. Do you know what I read the other day that latched mama, that clothing company, they give their parents a bad-ass parental leave. They let, they have their employees bring their infants to work for the first year if they want to. Wow. To breastfeed. They also just for everybody and their employees, they have a free lactation help hotline to. Really? Isn’t that cool? So anyway, and they get a hundred days of postpartum leave. I see that. And I’m like, this is amazing. I kind of feel like my emotions about it are a little bit overblown because everybody else’s parental leave sucks so bad.
Yeah. It’s true. It breaks my heart in the group all the time when people are just like, help! I can’t! I’m going back to work on Thursday. My baby’s five weeks old and I’m like, oh my God. Yeah. So looking back at 2020, the USA has not changed parental leave laws at all. We did just have a big governmental administration change.
So we’ll see what happens personally. I’m not that optimistic. Yeah. We’ll see. Yeah, we’ll see.
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So now that we’ve kind of seen the state of the state, there… We are going to talk about some fun, new, exciting research studies that just like, make me feel great when I read them. Blow my mind, Maureen! Right. 20, 20, what? My favorite one actually of the whole thing that I read was a study I found in science daily. And it looked into how breastfeeding can protect mothers or the breastfeeding, chest feeding, lactating person from diabetes.
So background, we have known for a long time that being fed breast milk is protective for infants against diabetes later in life. But also it’s going to help the person lactating too. Holy crap. Yeah, blows my mind. Huge. When we talk about it a little bit, I actually just wish I could read the entire study to you.
I tried to like cut it down. Anyway. So, the summary is that breastfeeding secures delivery of sugar and fat for milk production by changing the insulin sensitivity of certain organs that supply or demand these nutrients. So if it actually changes the maternal insulin sensitivity, which is a big way that people develop diabetes, they become, um, essentially insensitive to their insulin.
So the findings explain how different tissues cooperate to start and maintain lactation and offer strategies to help improve breastfeeding success for mothers who have insufficient milk production. So two parts to that. One of the hypothesis that they were working with is that breastfeeding changes how the body actually uses insulin.
Well, that makes sense. Right? Of course it does. Yeah, because I mean, if you’ve got a bunch of sugar floating around in your body, but you’re also in the process of making breast milk and you have a lot of really active lactocytes, which are the cells that make breast milk. Of course, that’s going to change how your body uses insulin and uses the sugar that’s floating around.
Basically. This state of lactation allows our cells to take more glucose from our bloodstream. It does like, of course it does. I mean, like we’re like, oh, we know that, but now we’re applying it to something totally different. Someone finally had to write it down. Yeah. But basically, you know, they, they did a bunch of detailed metabolic studies of lactating people.
And, you know, they looked at other studies that we already knew that pregnancy reduces insulin sensitivity, right. And sets a lot of people up for a diabetic state. But now we know that lactation may restore that sensitivity to at least a pre- pregnancy state. Yeah. So pregnancy jacks up your whole body, because you’re actually growing a human. And you know, but you know, with as much as it jacks up your body, your body is smart and wants to live.
So, using breastfeeding and that lactation time in the postpartum period to heal makes so much sense to me. So maybe we just have a bunch of broken postpartum people around, out there who can’t breastfeed or didn’t breastfeed for whatever reason and their bodies never recovered. So that’s why you said we, a lot of times, pregnancy can set you up for hypertension later on and type two diabetes.
And yeah, breastfeeding is healing. That’s so cool. Absolutely. Like, so the studies they did, they measured insulin concentrations, glucose production, glucose in the bloodstream. They measured how many lipids were or how much fat was released from the fatty tissue. I mean, it’s just so cool. Like the results they found basically showed that the, the lactating group had increased insulin sensitivity, despite more glucose in the bloodstream.
Hm. Cool. Right. And basically that glucose sensitivity carried over both for a fasting state and a fed state for the parents. And they were still maximizing nutrients in breast milk, you know, by making more lipids and glucose in their bloodstream. It’s just so cool. Like I was reading this and I was like, I can’t even pick out a sentence to put it in the podcast.
Cause I’m so excited about this! Yeah, I mean, we’ve been so baby focused for so long, I think because it’s a more sensitive topic. Like this is what’s best for your baby and you know, the campaigns that were a little scary there for a while in the beginning that really kind of made breastfeeders look like psycho cult, boob people.
Like the breast is best, which gave birth to fed is best, which then a lot of interesting arguments, so many interesting things. So now, you know, now that we are beyond that, you know, breastfeeding is best for your baby and your baby’s going to get sick if you don’t do it. Are we beyond it? We’re trying this, we’re getting, we’re getting beyond it.
Maureen and I, the hill that we’re dying on is we’re straddling both of those camps and we are using evidence to make sure that we all understand what the hell is going on. So. Basically now that we’re able to kind of take a step back and like take our finger off of that pressure point a little bit. We can start spending time and resources on seeing the benefits for the lactating parent.
Yeah. And the last thing I want to say about this study, which was kind of the conclusion, but not, not conclusive. It was an open door. I love that. The researchers who did this study, think that the results may actually help them figure out that unexplained low milk supply we see a lot where every, everything we try doesn’t work, people just don’t make enough milk. And maybe even help them like fix that somehow with navigating that insulin sensitivity.
Oh, that’s really good. Yeah. So I’m excited about that. I’m like, cool. When’s the next study coming out. We’ll be back to you in two years to tell you what happens next. But, you know, that’s kind of what you want though. You want the studies that are legitimate and those ones take awhile and it takes a lot of manpower, woman power, whatever.
So can I tell about baby cafe? So I went to the ELCA conference this year. I didn’t go, but it was online. We, we went, we quote unquote went and this one presenter was great and talked about baby cafes, which are, you can think of it as like a LA Leche league meeting where people can go for free to get breastfeeding support in person, but it’s run by IBCLCs.
So board certified lactation consultants, it’s a nonprofit organization. That’s a franchise models. So for example, for, I don’t know, $700. I think it was, I can buy a franchise to a baby cafe and I get access to a website that they give me and I get their statisticians, which means I get to run my own research while helping people for free and building a breastfeeding community in my own personal community.
And then I get to send whatever data I have to their statistician’s and they process the research. Wow, which is so freaking cool because you know, every community is different. So basically what’s happening in Morgantown, West Virginia is not going to be the same thing that’s happening in New Orleans.
Right. I mean, it might be, but it might not be so like, so I can do studies on Appalachian women. You know, I can do studies on people that live in college towns. Trying to breastfeed and trying to access care in a college town because we have the West Virginia Mountaineers in Morgantown, woop. Um, so that’s very cool to me and I love that franchise model.
I love that they make it easy. I’m looking into it. We shall see, but I’m really excited that somebody has put something in place to help get more data about breastfeeding. And long-term breastfeeding. And also they help to provide scholarships for people that have been breastfeeders that like went to the group who want to become LCS or IBCLCs and getting them the, the hours they need, because this is a huge problem.
You, you can’t just be one, you have to like, go do visits with somebody and there’s not enough of us. Right. So, and there’s not a lot of organizations want more students running around. This allows people to come get the hours they need to help and work with an IBCLC and get the money they need to take these tests because my IBCLC certification was over $700. I’m sure.
And it’s just crazy expensive. So helping, helping people with that and also helping black and brown people to become LCs and IBCLCs because fun fact, there’s a health disparity there. Big shocker! Yeah. Big health disparity between black people and white people, uh, with, uh, longevity of breastfeeding ever, being breastfed. And every single statistic you can pull up is, you know, we’re consistently going to see the black indigenous people of color communities. Do more poorly than the white communities. And just to reiterate in case people aren’t familiar with what happens, these health disparities are due to racism in our larger health system and systemic racism.
So this is not the fault of those people. This is the fault of their system and their community failing them. Right. I mean, it’s the same thing with midwifery… We have zero black or brown midwives of any kind in the whole state of West Virginia. And basically what happens is, and the reason is if there is a black midwife student who needs a preceptor and a white midwife student who needs a preceptor, the white student tends to get picked more.
And then we end up having no black or brown midwives or the ones we do have who our students feel uncomfortable and they want to leave the state to go be comfortable somewhere else. Right. Right. And you know, like the. People who grow up, you know, if they are black or indigenous or a person of color, their entire journey to get to that point is so much harder that even when we’re like, oh, we’re going to treat everybody exactly the same… they’re still at a disadvantage.
Yep. So, so it’s really great that this organization is trying to do something to address that health disparity. In people’s own communities. They’re not going to come in. Like, for example, when you have like a big federal program, it doesn’t fit everywhere, you know? And so it doesn’t take seed and, and really make a difference because it doesn’t fit in all places.
So by people having these pop-up in their own communities and you can build it. They tell you, build it the way it’s going to work for your community, which is so cool. So if you are a person listening to this, who’s like, I want to start a baby cafe. You don’t have to be an IB CLC. You just have to find one who’s going to show up once a month, twice a month, three times a week, whatever you guys can meet. Just do it. I think it’s awesome. So I hope we figure out how to get at least one of those in West Virginia, somewhere sometime. Well, there’s 150 of them or something around the United States. I’m so sure we don’t have one, you know, I’m positive, we don’t. I looked. Cool. Yes. Super excited about that.
Hey guys, it’s Maureen here. And I wanted to let you know about my Etsy shop. I am an artist and a designer, and I have a shop where I make educational breastfeeding posters, shirts for birth workers like for your favorite nurse or midwife, shirts for people who are lactating, mugs, stickers, all kinds of stuff.
Some of my birth paintings are on there. It’s an eclectic collection and it’s really beautiful. So if you want to find that you’re going to go to etsy.com/shop/thewanderingwom6 except instead of a B it’s a six. So that’s the wandering womb with a six instead of a B.
Let’s do another study. I found that’s fun, not particularly new information, but confirming information we already talked about on this podcast. So in episode 24, we discussed how exercise impacts breast milk and breastfeeding. And we kind of threw the myth out the window that it causes low milk supply.
And there was a new study in 2020 talking about how exercise increases the benefits of breast milk for babies. Yeah, that’s kind of cool. Okay. We’re going to talk about how this new study finds that even moderate exercise during pregnancy increases a compound of breast milk that reduces a baby’s lifelong risks of serious health issues, such as diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.
So they had a group of lactating parents that they had exercise trackers on, and then they like periodically analyzed their breast milk compunds. Oh, yeah, it’s pretty cool. So first they did some mice models, right? That’s usually where people start with mice or rats. Anyway, they did that. It was promising.
So then they moved onto humans. So it’s a small study. They followed 150 people through their lactation journey, but with good results. So. The people who had more steps per day and not even like out of the park, you ran 10 miles, like the moderate activity level. Like you walked for 30 minutes, right. These people had more of what is called 3SL in their breast milk. I’m going to say this bad, so enjoy… that’s 3′ sialyllactose. And like I said, the increase was not necessarily related to exercise intensity. So just a daily walk was enough to see a big increase in this 3SL. 3SL is a human milk oligosaccharide. So oligosaccharides are a major constituent of breast milk, fulfilling a bunch of functions.
Like promoting growth of beneficial gut bacteria, acting as a soluble receptor that prevents the attachment of pathogens in the GI tract. And so that’s really cool. So mostly we see the oligosaccharides impacting gut health, and as we know… after lots of recent studies, your gut is really tied to your immune system.
Right? We have those pyres patches in our intestines. They’re they’re like a way that the immune system connects into the intestinal tract. It’s pretty cool. And they like release leukocytes into the intestines and stuff. And because like our, our digestive system is like the outside of our body on the inside of us. It’s just a continual tube from our mouth to our butt. Yeah. And it’s where all of those pathogens go.
Right. It’s your brain’s way of seeing what’s going on in your environment. Exactly. Making sure everything’s okay. So they are so tied to each other, your gut health and your immune health are inseparable. Fun fact. Did you know that only 10% of the neurons go from the brain to the gut? The other 90% go from the gut to the brain. Cool. Because your brain is just floating around in your head, completely detached from the environment. It needs a messenger and the messenger, and like the best way to test your overall health of a person is to look at what they’re eating and look at their poop.
Yeah. So I love it. Just seeing that like more exercise from that lactating parent improves gut health for babies, which just, you know, spirals out into this whole lifetime of health benefits. I love that.
Okay. Tell us one more. Okay, so, well, I have two more Heather. Oh, two more. Okay. I wanted to get into a little bit of the Corona virus. You know? Yeah. We have to probably touch on it. So, but this, of course, there are lots of people studying COVID-19 right now, it’s the new hot topic to study, which is actually like, because literally every scientist in the world is studying this right now. We’re getting results really fast, which is cool. That doesn’t usually happen.
Usually everybody works in their own bubble with their own grants and whatever. So this is cool. So we had one study published. I think this is like, this was in like November, really new. And it, they studied how breastmilk harbors antibodies to SARS COV-2, which is COVID-19, it’s a very small study, right? These are all really tiny studies. So this was 15 parents, but it’s not the only study like this. And there’ve been a couple with really similar results. So I feel good at talking about it. Okay. So just to start with, to date, we have zero evidence that a parent, a breastfeeding parent can transmit COVID-19 to their baby through breast milk.
Let me just start there. Okay. Just to dispel that myth. And they have been testing breast milk to make sure there’s not live virus in it, and they’ve never found it yet. So that’s really cool. Which also suggests that breast milk from COVID positive parents is safe as donor milk, too. Which is great. Okay.
Oh God. I didn’t even think about the fact that everybody’s milk sharing. And how that might affect it, but glad to know, it’s not. Yeah, it should be fine. Um, and, and like, this was basically the first thing people studied this year talking about it, so that’s cool. So anyway, now what they looked at is how has breast milk of COVID positive parents changed? So they tried to take samples from the same parents who were breastfeeding pre pandemic, and then breastfeeding during the pandemic who had COVID-19. Right? So that’s what the sample study is so small. So, you know, they tested their antibodies or their milk before tested it during, and they found that the milk of COVID positive parents had higher levels of IGA and IgG, um, which are milk immunoglobulins. And that both of those were more reactive to the COVID 19 virus. That’s good. Yeah.
So let me just break that down for you… So what they’re finding is when somebody is COVID positive, even after they’re found COVID positive, how many, how much time after did they did not say well, it probably said I probably didn’t copy it, so that’s okay.
So after you are COVID positive, they test your breast milk and they see that there are antibodies in there. Antibodies, which would recognize COVID in your baby. And kill it. Before it infected your baby, which is great. So it’s basically like a vaccine. Well, yeah, say that. It’s not exactly like a vaccine. It’s the way the antibodies work in milk’s a little bit different. Cause they’re secretory antibodies. So, and we find secretory antibodies basically anywhere, but the bloodstream. So they’re not the same kind of antibodies that your immune system sends out through your blood. And that is special. Let me see if I can say this right. Because those cells travel in a different way.
They use this like special transporter protein that leaves pieces and like the proteins leaves pieces of themselves on the antibodies, which protects them from being degraded in the infant’s mouth and gut. That’s cool. Yeah. And that’s because these are found in our mucous membranes on our body, right. So they have to be able to survive in our guts. So if we were just giving infants antibodies taken from our bloodstream, they’d get broken down in the gut and not used. Right. This is why most vaccines are injections and not like, oral. Yeah. So that’s really cool. Like it’s in the secretory antibodies they’re specially made to function exactly right in a babies digestive system.
Okay. Love it. I love that too. Yeah. Which also like potentially then using those reactive secretory antibodies like opens up a wider range of how we can use them for other humans. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, but that’s, I mean, I’m imagining that’s going to be far down the road. Yeah, totally.
But right now, like these are really preliminary results, but they’re super promising. So what that tells us, it doesn’t necessarily say across the board breast milk from COVID positive parents transfers immunity to babies. Like that’s not what this is saying. It’s saying that it might, and that this is an area that warrants more research because of these good results.
Right, which is very exciting. Yeah. And it’s also the big, big announcement with this is we do not recommend that you stop breastfeeding if you have COVID, which ties into my next study. Okay. Hit me with it. I’m going to hit you with it. This study is called mistakes from the HIV pandemic should inform the COVID-19 response for maternal and newborn care.
All right. If you are unfamiliar with the HIV pandemic, this was really mishandled in a ton of ways and continues to be to this day. Okay. We are still in an HIV pandemic PS. We are still at the point where it’s something crazy, like 50% of black men who have sex with other men get HIV. It is insane.
Really? Yeah, it’s bad. So the HIV pandemic is not over folks. However, At this point, we should be able to learn from the mistakes made during that, to not only fix the mistakes with HIV, but also prevent the same mistakes with COVID-19. So if you’re sitting there and you’re like, how the fuck are these related. Let me tell you about it.
So in the early response to the HIV pandemic, There were efforts to prevent maternal to newborn transmission by replacing breastfeeding with infant formula. And that resulted in a big spike in infant death. Okay. So related, just in general, like infant mortality. Yup, infant mortality went up because of more formula feeding.
Okay. Right. That’s interesting. And, you know, Like, you know, I, I don’t know all the details there, but I’m sure infants were still getting HIV regardless. And let me say HIV can actually be transmitted through breast milk, but what we’ve learned since then is that in most of the places where HIV is still prevalent right now, the risks of formula feeding, outweigh the risks of breast milk feeding with an HIV positive parent. If you’re in Sub-Saharan Africa and you don’t have access to clean water, right. To make formula, it’s going to be better for your baby to drink breast milk, even if there’s HIV. Right. And you know, it’s not a guarantee that children will contract that virus through the breast milk, 25%.
It’s a possibility. And now let me say that we are almost positive you cannot get COVID-19 through breast milk. Yeah. So however, even knowing that we’re still seeing that governments, professional organizations, healthcare facilities are instituting policies that isolate newborns from their mothers and prevent or impede breastfeeding.
Yeah, it’s awful. And like the trauma coming out of that is huge, right? The trauma, the long-term health impacts on the infants that survive that. And, we’re going to see, uh, an, a raise in infant mortality in certain places because of that baseline. We’re going to do that if breastfeeding rates go down.
So, you know, here’s the conclusion policymakers and practitioners need to learn from that fucking mistake from the HIV pandemic, and they need to do their best to not undermine breastfeeding in the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s clear that it maximizes infant health and wellbeing to breastfeed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Policies should support skin to skin contact, maternal proximity and breastfeeding.
There we go. Folks. Yep. Sorry. That was a real deep, uh, intense note to end. Um, but it’s so important. And it’s seriously. I think it’s like every other day we hear from somebody who just found out, you know, that they are going to be separated from baby because they’re, COVID positive and their induction is scheduled in two days.
Yeah, it’s really scary because, and it’s hard for us to tell you what to do because every facility is different and it changes day by day. And it’s like, is my partner going to be allowed to be there? Are they not? Right. And, you know, we can tell you where to find the appropriate recommendations and the guidelines that your hospital is supposed to be following.
But you can walk in there with that piece of paper, all you want, and they’re still not going to make a different choice. You know, you can sign a, sometimes you can sign a document saying that you refuse that. You know, a waiver basically saying you’re not going to do that. And the hospital says, well, we’re washing our hands of it, you know, you know?
Yeah. Well, it’s leaving people in this weird situation between, do I want to take my risk of delivering at the hospital and going through whatever separation I have to go through from my baby, potentially. Or do I want to have an unassisted delivery at home and we are not recommending an unassisted delivery at home, but we are saying, we understand that that choice is being made because you can’t find a home birth midwife when it’s a week from your delivery.
And like, you know, and that’s just not available to everybody, especially if you’re COVID positive, because that means then that her other 15 clients won’t get to. Uh, you say that Heather and I didn’t even tell you this. I literally had that conversation with somebody about two weeks ago where it was through a friend, you know, they were like, Hey, my friend is planning an unassisted birth because they’re COVID positive.
Oh God. You know, and, and I just like, and it sucked. I had to say, look, my professional opinion is that, you know, I can’t say one way or another if that’s a safe choice for them, but I’ve been telling people who are, COVID positive to consult with maternal fetal medicine and get some extra, you know, ultrasounds and get some eyes on that placenta and make sure everything’s okay.
You know, personally, if you’re, you know, if you’re really planning an unassisted birth and you’re prepared for that, that’s fine with me, but I can’t recommend that to anybody. You know, especially when I don’t know them and I don’t know their situation. No judgment on your choice. Just saying that’s professionally, we cannot recommend that. Right. And it takes a lot more self-education it takes a lot more self preparation, you know, that just not everybody is capable of doing. Not in this day and age anyway. Right. There’s just not enough community around people. Like, please don’t do this. If it’s just you and your partner and you have no friends or family to help you.
So basically we’ll put the links in the show notes for the current recommendations for breastfeeding during COVID and what the hospitals should be following. So at least you can try to walk in with that piece of paper, and then obviously the links to all of these. Research articles that Maureen found are going to be in the show notes in case you’re interested in reading more about that.
And the good news is that we have come a long way in 2020. So even though it has been a bit of a dumpster fire, there has been a lot that’s come out of it. We’re breastfeeding more, we’re breastfeeding more. We are working together more, I would say on a lot of things, we have a common goal. And when people have a common goal, you tend to get further, quicker. And so, you know, we’re here for it. If you guys need anything, please let us know. And we hope that your 2021 is going to be amazing. Honestly, just like not as bad as 2020, I could live with that. What are, what are your goals in 2021, Maureen? Oh gosh, my 2021 goal. Well, I’m going to have a baby.
I think it’s a girl. Can I say that? You can say that I do too, but I really felt that way last time and I was so wrong. So it’s fine. I’m going to have a baby. I’m going to survive the first three to four months of breastfeeding and hopefully come out of that with a better mental health status than last time. And. Yeah, I’m gonna, my goal is to get my CPM in 2021 because I still don’t have that because life has thrown a lot of curve balls at me. Yeah. I think that’s it.
Those are a lot of goals and, and she wants to build a pantry in her kitchen. My goals for 2021 are to spend more time being present with my family. Good. Do more family things. I want to do something with my husband that we have in common, you know, like find something that we have in common that we like to do just together that doesn’t involve just drinking wine and watching Netflix, which is fine. I just, something a little bit more active would be nice.
And I would like to see my business, Breastfeeding for Busy Moms do really well, just so more people have information for breastfeeding. I love it. I want to spread the, spread the word, spread the education and spread the love. And, um, we’ll see, I guess we’ll see in a year, we’ll let you know what’s happening.
This week’s award in the alcove is going to have to go to Hadley. She posted this adorable picture, breastfeeding her baby outside in the freezing cold. And her caption says when your toddler wants to play outside, but your baby is hungry, you improvise. Yes. My boob is cold. And girl, your boob looks cold.
So Maureen and I are totally giving you the below zero hero award. You deserve it. That’s how you rock it when you’ve got a toddler and a baby to feed and their snow outside to play in. So great job, mom, you did it.
God, I love those awards. They just make me feel so warm and fricking fuzzy inside. Thank you so much for listening. We made it through this year and I’m so glad that you’re coming with us into 2021. It’s going to be amazing and I feel great about. Thanks for listening to the Milk Minute. If you haven’t already please like, subscribe and review our podcast wherever you listen.
If you’d like to support our podcast, you can find us on Patreon at patreon.com/milkminutepodcast. To send us feedback, personal stories, or just to chat, you can send us an email at milkminutepodcast@gmail.com.
